129 Comments
User's avatar
David Ross's avatar

Mamdani as mayor, and now Bowman as schools chancellor. What could possibly go wrong? Are New Yorkers really this dim-witted?

Expand full comment
Yuri Bezmenov's avatar

Commissar Bowman will groom a new generation of red guards. They will pull fire alarms as soon as they get triggered and report hate speech to the Zohrantifada. Asian voters were his strongest voting block, yet their merit based schools will be destroyed by him - woke identity politics reigns supreme in every big city in America.

Expand full comment
David Ross's avatar

Sad, but true...

Expand full comment
EllisGee's avatar

Yep.

Expand full comment
paula yokoyama's avatar

let them find out what life is like when all the Pizza places move to Florida!

Expand full comment
Helen J Vogl's avatar

I think they are!

Expand full comment
Scott Baiar's avatar

Yes, they are.

Expand full comment
F. Lawrence Coleman's avatar

If New Yorkers are turning to Zohran Mamdani and Jamal Bowman as beacons of hope, it's not a sign of progress—it's a damning verdict on the rot that’s been allowed to fester in our education system. That these two are even in the conversation is a blistering indictment of the status quo and the liberal establishment that has failed our children year after year. Bowman, in particular, is a walking contradiction: a man whose rhetoric outpaces his results, whose tenure in Congress has been marked more by empty slogans than meaningful reform. To believe he’s fit to lead New York’s schools is not just naïve—it’s reckless. You’d have to be willfully blind, or stunningly foolish, to entrust your children’s future to someone whose track record is this hollow.

Expand full comment
Steve G's avatar

You’d have to be willfully blind, or stunningly foolish

Perhaps both?

Expand full comment
Ben F.'s avatar

Pretty much says it all! Wild. Where is the desire for socialism coming from? It seems like there’s a whole cadre of individuals who are willing to through NYC under the bus to get their way.

Expand full comment
Elizabeth Rome's avatar

The "desire" for socialism is coming from books rather than real world experience. Also empty rhetoric, laziness and a lack of critical thinking.

Expand full comment
Frans Susan Phillips Duncan's avatar

The lame brains that vote for such as Mamdani and Bowman are INCAPABLE of critical thinking. That's the major problem of so much of the populace....they're too dumb for logical thought.

Expand full comment
Elizabeth Rome's avatar

Agreed. There is a huge, sad, lack of critical thinking being taught in schools.

Expand full comment
BD's avatar

I'm of the opinion that we're not talking about 'critical thinking' any longer. We're now just talking about thinking period.

Expand full comment
Elizabeth Rome's avatar

I'd add "independent thinking" to the lack as well. It takes more effort to analyze facts, learn history draw your own conclusions.

Expand full comment
Ken France's avatar

Certainly!

Expand full comment
Jaime's avatar

RIP NYC

Expand full comment
Mr Black Fox's avatar

Jamaal Bowman is what you get once standards are erased and Western civilization is denigrated.

Thankful that Chris Rufo is bringing Bowman to task. We can’t sit back passively and say “RIP NYC” when so much is at stake.

We all need to embrace a theory and plan of positive change. Sitting back won’t cut it any more.

Expand full comment
Mimi's avatar

And Adam’s and Cuomo need to put aside their ego so only one will face Mamdani.

Expand full comment
Mr Black Fox's avatar

Waiting on a New York version of Chris Rufo to run for NYC mayor. Is there any conservative group nurturing political talent in NYC or did they all decamp to low-tax Palm Beach?

Expand full comment
Michael Miller's avatar

Neither one is a desirable alternative though. Best we can do??

Expand full comment
Jaime's avatar

I wrote “RIP NYC” - I don’t live in in NY or NYC so I can’t vote there - I’m not sure what you expect non-residents of the city to do. If you’ve looked at the math for the election, Zohran can’t lose. The people love him. They are going to get what they vote for and NYC is going to take a huge hit - the city has already fallen so far so fast - most parts of it are as gross as they were in the 1980s. It is inevitable.

Expand full comment
Mr Black Fox's avatar

Zohran is the front runner because the GOP abandoned big East Coast cities and fled to Florida for sunshine and low taxes. Laughable that Curtis Sliwa is the GOP flag-bearer.

@Jaime - I was not alive to see NYC in the 1980s. I’d say NYC today is in way better shape than back in the day. Cleaner city, no graffiti-tagged subway cars, the gentrification in many parts of the city has been amazing. Lots of positive things from my vantage point.

Expand full comment
BD's avatar

Well I am old enough to see NYC in the 70s and 80s, and it was pretty damn ugly. But after Giuliani's turn around, it's criminal what the city has gone back to. Democrats are uncapable of governing, plain and simple. And if they are given the power to continue governing NYC, I guarantee you that things will get much worse.

Expand full comment
Mr Black Fox's avatar

You can’t predict the future so let’s leave it at that.

Expand full comment
Joe Horton's avatar

Uh…no. Much of the GOP left because the cause was already lost. There’s no reason to throw good money (or time and effort) after bad. The buried cost argument is a fallacy.

Expand full comment
Mr Black Fox's avatar

The cause isn’t lost. People who do not want to formulate a positive theory of change would say what you are saying.

The GOP checked out in New York State because it forgot how to mobilize people to fight for what is right.

We are commenting on Chris Rufo’s substack. Rufo is a former lefty who has channeled his energies into a clear theory of change.

We need more Rufos and fewer people throwing in the towel.

Expand full comment
BD's avatar

I like your sentiment, but the people won't vote for someone to turn it around in NY. The state is too far gone.

Expand full comment
Joe Horton's avatar

Reasonable people can agree to disagree.

Expand full comment
THG's avatar
3dEdited

Mamdani voters are wealthy enough to afford private schools, so their children will not be affected by the 29% math proficiency in Bowman's schools - if they even have children. My understanding is that woke progressives prefer having dogs over having children, which is good news for the country. Meanwhile, Mississippi will soon outperform NY in quality of the K-12 education.

Expand full comment
Cadence's avatar

Racial politics, that's all. This comment, describing my reaction, is a real throwback.

I am English by birth, but grew up in the deep South during the civil rights era. We had some segregation, but there was, as a rule, peace and kindness all around. That's a fact, it's true. Then folks up North, with zero experience of mixed living, totally different demographics than in the South, got all riled up about our mistreatment of Blacks. Just one of the utterly destructive remedies was enforced bussing. Destroyed neighborhoods, education, put the State between parents and their children. Strangely, and for some time now, maybe since the 70s, if you notice, the real racial trouble is centered in Northern cities. Some of the worst in California, LA. Not so much the South, where there is still a much larger black population.

So, when I read a story like this one, there's great sadness but mixed in there is just a bit of amusement. Those New Yorkers, Yankees, if you will, were so sure . . .. Look at them now. Still the same rank idiocy, but doing it to themselves?

Expand full comment
Cranky Frankie's avatar

In fairness, the requirement for a "Green Book" so that some of those recipients of peace and kindness could find restaurants and hotel accommodations speaks volumes. In the words of Miles Davis, from his book published in the late 1960s, "Any Black man over the age of fifty deserves a medal just for putting up with it."

I lived in a suburb of Birmingham in the early 1960s.

Expand full comment
Cadence's avatar

I didn't deny the segregation, so I don't deny your point. (Though I never heard of a "green Book.") I'll surely just get into trouble here, but the presence of a large population of very different people from a very different, and very backward civilization, with very different, on average, capacities, presents a real, very difficult/complex, and lasting problem. Take a look at Africa today. (Lincoln himself recognized this, and favored deportation as a solution.) Answers/remedies are very difficult, and proving so even today. And putting Jermal Bowman in charge of NYC schools does no one any favors.

Expand full comment
BD's avatar

I agree, Miles has always been a hero of mine. But we are a long way from the early 60s.

Expand full comment
John's avatar

Fire Marshal Bowman? Oh good grief. 🤦‍♂️

Expand full comment
Elizabeth Rome's avatar

Yup---Bowman has proved to be a loud mouth self-serving phony in many areas.

Expand full comment
Michael Elofson's avatar

Yes, New York City is now a third-world city run by "minorities" and women. The ignorant halfwit Jamaal Bowman will fit right in. Bigger and bigger parts of the US are descending into third-world conditions.

Expand full comment
Mr Black Fox's avatar

Very hyperbolic comment. NYC is a rich and functioning city.

Not seen any White guys interested in getting involved in big city politics. They all fled to Florida to work on crypto schemes.

Expand full comment
Yvonne Leslie's avatar

Perhaps instead of taking jabs at the people who “fled” to Florida one might seriously consider “WHY” they “fled” in the first place.

Your youth is evident by your snark.

I was born & raised in NYC; spent the first 6 years of my life in Harlem (St. Nicholas projects) before moving to The Bronx. I am a graduate of the same high school that Mr. Mamdani graduated from, the prestigious Bronx HS of Science. I dare say that under Jamaal Bowman’s leadership, that will not remain the case.

I lived in NYC until I was 23 years old, last residing in Flushing, Queens. My best friend lived in Brooklyn, so I spent quite a bit of time there; she is a graduate of City College. I write all of this as background - many years in all but one borough. My stepfather was a cop in the 32 precinct in Harlem. (BTW, he retired & moved my mother & younger siblings to VA. before I moved to CA.)

I first “fled” to Southern California in 1980 & subsequently “fled” to Florida in 2021 because the city I loved, NYC, a cultural & ethnic mecca, had become a dirty, crime ridden place. First people left the city for the “island”, then they moved to Jersey as things became more & more dangerous & expensive.

Those same reasons led me to “flee” Southern California for Florida.

Mr. Black Fox - it’s very simple - people want to live where they are safe, where their children are safe. Where they see their hard earned tax dollars being spent wisely and efficiently. If people do not get that, they move if they can, to places where they will get those things.

Expand full comment
JWSPOONERMD's avatar

Thank you for the most sober and informative replies regarding a once-great city.

Expand full comment
Mr Black Fox's avatar

I’m not being snarky. Just asking questions. Have a great day!

Expand full comment
Yvonne Leslie's avatar

In reading your numerous comments I read one question. There were several references to people, in particular conservatives/Republicans fleeing. You made a dig at Curtis Sliwa - I remember why & when he created the Guardian Angels; it was in response to rising crime in all the boroughs. As for why there’s no other serious Republican candidate running for mayor, IMO, the city demographics are Left of center and no one seems to have learned anything from the DeBlasio mayoral leadership.

It’s amazing but the city has decided to double down on failed socialist policies. It’s also what happened in the state of California.

Expand full comment
Mr Black Fox's avatar

Curtis Sliwa should have trained his successors. That’s all I’ll say in response.

Expand full comment
Yvonne Leslie's avatar

No idea what that comment is supposed to mean. That Republicans are poor at messaging is for sure; that the Left can & does play to emotions is also a given; that the Left has been very effective in changing the meaning of words, absolutely

Expand full comment
Shaun's avatar

"Very hyperbolic comment. NYC is a rich and functioning city.

Not seen any White guys interested in getting involved in big city politics. They all fled to Florida to work on crypto schemes."

Not questions- statements and opinions. And the second one? Definitely snarky...

Expand full comment
Mr Black Fox's avatar

I asked questions earlier. Thanks for the comment 😎

Expand full comment
BD's avatar

Ok so where are all of the Black guys then? I could live with Adams, but he's not 'Socialist' enough. Unless you think Bowman is a leader/hero, or Mamdani is Black.

Expand full comment
Jason Alan Jankovsky's avatar

What I can't get my mind around is WHY these scumbags keep being taken seriously by anyone. How do they keep getting into places of responsibility and authority with such screwed up ideas and backgrounds? What kind of pinhead moron do you have to be to keep electing these people? Aren't you tired of this sort of nonsense by now? How many headlines does a New Yorker need to see before they STOP electing people whose moral decay is already complete? WAKE UP.

Expand full comment
Ben F.'s avatar

I don’t get it either. I read these articles and see these politicians who get elected. They are either outspoken radical socialists, or Democrat enough on the surface, but underneath the same radical socialist. It’s weird. It’s like the American population in these areas has no clue what these people believe.. like they don’t understand the socialists don’t want America to exist anymore.. if you go read the Reddit forums on socialism, you’ll see that pulling that flag down and replacing it with a new flag and new nation is 100% the goal. Some do it by infiltration, some say violence is needed sometimes. I mean, are there that many people in places like NYC who really believe the America we know is a lie and want to actively promote people who will destabilize it?

Expand full comment
William Tuesday's avatar

It was always a mystery to me as to why New York liberals were against School Choice(or other public school alternatives) and it finally came to me. White New Yorkers send their kids to private schools. Many have learned how to manipulate the system so that their kids will get into the occasional “good” school in the district. But surely they must care about the minority kids stuck in the failing schools?? They don’t. They want their kids to be on top. That means someone else’s kids have to be on the bottom. They won’t tell you that, but that is exactly how they feel. Also, many just don’t want black kids in their children’s schools. What about the black parents? Surely they would like to opt out of the public schools? Wrong. Blacks mostly see the school system as a jobs programs. Getting their hands on the $billions that go into the system is the highest priority for black community leaders and politicians. I don’t think actual education even ranks on their priority list . Regarding Jamaal Bowman, not sure he can make the problem worse than it already is.

Expand full comment
BiltvonGott's avatar

Sounds remarkably like Chicago.

Expand full comment
Damn the torpedoes's avatar

Time for the red states to secede. The blue states will drag us all down.

Expand full comment
Mr Black Fox's avatar

EXIT is not always the answer. Working on a clear and positive plan of change is way more sensible.

Expand full comment
EllisGee's avatar

Thanks to Lincoln, that isn’t an option.

Expand full comment
Michael Miller's avatar

It wasn’t for the colonists either. But that didn’t stop them.

Expand full comment
Karen Bracken's avatar

Absolutely is an option.

Expand full comment
Damn the torpedoes's avatar

I suppose, but if it gets much worse…

Expand full comment
Ben F.'s avatar

Texas could do it, but they never do. It’s not a viable option really.

Expand full comment
A Stranger in a Strange Land's avatar

DEI dumb

Expand full comment
Maria Ventola's avatar

Bowman is a failure and failure is to be expected with him as the head of nyc public schools system. I feel saddened for underprivileged students who will pay the price. I worked for 30 yrs in the nyc public schools system and have never felt more afraid. God help us.

Expand full comment
Shaun's avatar

Failing up.

Expand full comment
Hugh Nemets's avatar

Bowman should be working as an inmate in a prison cafeteria. An enemy of America.

Expand full comment
James Triller's avatar

NY is on a suicidal path.

Expand full comment
Ken France's avatar

New York must be dumber than I think to put this has been in any position. They are past dumb into the moron section if Mamdani gets elected.

Expand full comment